The purpose of this task is for students to relate addition and subtraction problems to money in a context that introduces the concept of scarcity. Scarcity occurs when you want or need more than you can have. Students may want to buy everything but will discover that it not possible with only $7 and they will have to make decisions. To help first graders solve this problem is would be helpful to have multiple pictures of each object with the price on the picture (see attached black line master).